In just the past week, projects planned for this summer by PIARA received funding from two sources.

First, PIARA Co-Director Rebecca Bria and Curb Foundation Intern Karissa Deiter, both in the Anthropology at Vanderbilt University received a Creative Campus Innovation Grant from the Curb Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The $4800.00 US was awarded for their proposal “Learning and Valuing the Social Sciences through Co-Creative Practice and Artistic Engagement”

The proposal is for a program that aims to better enable social scientists to explain to the public why their research is relevant to their lives. The program is based in strategies of hands-on and co-creative activities where the voices and concerns of all participants – social scientists, educators, and the public are brought together as equal participants in the education process.

Funds will be used for two related projects:

The first project will design educational workshops tha­t bring understanding and value to our archaeological research in Hualcayán, Peru during Summer 2014. These workshops will allow Peruvian children to generate their own interpretations through the artistic and digital presentation of archaeological data. The children will incorporate their products into a digital exhibit that will debut at the 2nd Annual Hualcayán Community Heritage Festival. This portion of the project will illustrate the methods used to uncover the past, and encourage children to find value in their history by exploring and demonstrating how that heritage relates to their own experiences and worldview.

Second, in a collaborative project between Vanderbilt students and Nashville Public Schools social studies student teachers, they will design workshops that will apply artistic and co-creative approaches to student teacher projects. The students will create blog posts on their experiences to serve as a resource for other educators. Successful strategies will be adapted for future outreach in projects with students in Peru.

In addition to the $4800.00 grant award, and in keeping with the co-creative approach to the project, additional institutional, material or financial support for the project is provided by PIARA Peru, the University of Memphis, Hualcayán Community and Schools (Ancash, Peru), the Municipality of the Province of Huaylas (Ancash, Peru), Vanderbilt University College of Education and Human Development, Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Center for Digital Archaeology at the University of California at Berkley, and the Ministry of Culture in Peru. The thirteen student collaborators for the Peruvian component of the project are from Vanderbilt University, Arizona State University, the University of Wisconsin, University of Chicago, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, Peru), the University of Memphis, and the University of Colorado.

A second grant was awarded this past week to PIARA by St. John’s Episcopal Church, Memphis, Tennessee, US. The award of $1500.00 US will be used as seed money to support the residents of Hualacayán to create craft items that will be sold to generate funds for medical supplies and future medical clinics to the village. The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee has a long-standing tradition of providing medical assistance to underserved communities in the United States and abroad. Currently the churches in the diocese support regular medical missions to Haiti. Parishioners at St. John’s are exploring their ability to support the development of long-term and sustainable dental, medical, and veterinarian care with the people of Huaylas.

You can also provide support for these and other PIARA projects in 2014 by your generous donation. Visit our website for more details on how you can become involved today.